INFERNO │ Marvel

1.2 hellfire

Amelia was beside herself when she heard the news that her brother had gone missing. Ever since she was a child, the siblings had known that the industry they found themselves in was not a safe one, just as it had been unsafe for their father. Now, however, staring up at the screen showing several images of the explosion where they had been unable to recover him, she realised just how dangerous and terrifying it could be.

"What the hell do we do?" she asked with a shaky voice. Pepper squeezed her shoulder comfortingly.

"We're working on locating him now," Rhodes said from beside the two women. "What you need to do is stay safe, and stay out of the public eye for now."

"For how long? How the hell am I supposed to sit tight while Tony is out there going through god knows what?"

"It won't help him to cry about it, Amelia," Obadiah stated, barely showing any emotion. She scoffed at him. He had already made preparations to take temporary control of Stark Industries without consulting her. She couldn't imagine that he actually cared about Tony being in danger. It had actually worked out in his favour.

"Well then, is there any way I can help?" she asked Rhodes.

Rhodes gave her a tight smile, filled with sympathy for her and worry for his friend. "If there's anything, I'll let you know.

-

Amelia had retired to her own corner of Tony's large workshop. She never had her own space, as she enjoyed being in Tony's. It was so quiet without him, even when she started blasting his favourite music through the speakers. She needed a distraction, so she dove straight into her work.

She opened her safe in the wall, one even Tony didn't have access to. Inside were two large shelves which held her life's work. On the bottom shelf sat files written and seen only by her. On the top sat a metal box, tightly locked with fingerprint technology and secured with small explosives so that if someone were to try and open it who wasn't her, it would simply blow itself to smithereens.

Amelia pulled out the box and quickly scanned her thumb to unlock it. Three vials of thick orange liquid sat inside. Project Hellfire. The name wasn't exactly appealing, but it wasn't meant to be. Tony had been right when he said that what she was doing was destructive, trying to create a modified super-soldier serum. She wasn't the only copycat of the famous Abraham Erskine, as she had heard of failed attempts before. But she was determined to be the one who not only got it right, but also made it her own.

The Stark woman hated the idea of having test subjects, so instead, she ran digital simulations with the exact chemical make-up of her serum until she could see that it would work as she intended. Only then would she test it on a human subject, and she would only trust herself.

Each of the three samples was virtually the same, only with a few chemical differences that were clearly labelled. These were ones yet to be tested, unlike the various samples she had made before. Every time she tested and tweaked, tested and tweaked, until one day she might finally have something usable.

She pulled out the first vial, labelled 'sample #57', and copied its labelled data into the simulation on her computer. Tony and her and worked together on the software that was able to perfectly emulate the biology of the body and reactions to various stimuli. Tony in particular loved testing digital models of his weapons on it, which Amelia thought was morbid, but it kept him entertained.

She watched the screen as the human model was injected with the serum. It took a few seconds for anything to happen. When it did, the simulated body burst into flames, and she was not surprised in the slightest.